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Old Dec 19th, 2022, 08:34 AM
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The worst European airports

Airhelp just published their Global Airport Ranking for 2022.
According to this publication, the 20 worst European airports (based on on-time-performance and customer opinions) are (in this order, from worst to better):
London Luton
Antalya
Bristol
London Gatwick
Lisbon
Charleroi
Prague
Bucharest
Belgrade
Cologne
Sofia
Chania
Bologna
Milan Malpensa
Bergamo
Edinburgh
Eindhoven
Beauvais
Birmingham
Istanbul (IST).
CDG, FRA, AMS, BER and LHR are not much better.
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Old Dec 19th, 2022, 08:57 AM
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I'm surprised MAN is not on the list -- horrible queues/delays/cancellations for the last year at least. I 'think' much worse than LGW
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Old Dec 19th, 2022, 10:09 AM
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Antalya is not in Europe.
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Old Dec 19th, 2022, 11:36 AM
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Originally Posted by cdnyul
Antalya is not in Europe.
According to Fodor's Turkey is in Europe.
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Old Dec 19th, 2022, 12:51 PM
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I don't think of Turkey as being in Europe either, I consider that straight where Istanbul is south of the Black Sea the end of Europe and think of it as Middle East like Syria next door. But turkey is inconsideration for belonging to the EU. Everybody wants to be European to gain economic advantages. I don't think Georgia is considered Europe, is it, or Armenia? They are north of turkey on the east side. World Atlas says it uses UN defs or something and that TUrkey is not in Europe because most of its population is in Asia, but that Istanbul could be considered Europe.

https://www.worldatlas.com/geography...in-europe.html

I don't think you can compare really small airports to major one in the Capital in terms of lots of things. Charleroi?? It should be two lists, one for on time and one for opinions.
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Old Dec 19th, 2022, 01:08 PM
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Originally Posted by Christina
.....But turkey is inconsideration for belonging to the EU..
Yeah but there is the small Cyprus issue which has been a roadblock to Türkiye joining the EU.


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Old Dec 19th, 2022, 01:12 PM
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Originally Posted by hetismij2
According to Fodor's Turkey is in Europe.
That makes it official, then
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Old Dec 19th, 2022, 02:04 PM
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While I can second that for Istanbul (so much unnecessary spaces) and for Bucharest (for a variety of reasons), I cannot understand what Gatwick is doing here - a compact, one of my favourite airports
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Old Dec 19th, 2022, 02:04 PM
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While I can second that for Istanbul (so much unnecessary space) and for Bucharest (for a variety of reasons), I cannot understand what Gatwick is doing here - a compact, one of my favourite airports
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Old Dec 20th, 2022, 06:57 AM
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Originally Posted by neckervd
Airhelp just published their Global Airport Ranking for 2022.
According to this publication, the 20 worst European airports (based on on-time-performance and customer opinions) are (in this order, from worst to better):
London Luton
Antalya
Bristol
London Gatwick
Lisbon
Charleroi
Prague
Bucharest
Belgrade
Cologne
Sofia
Chania
Bologna
Milan Malpensa
Bergamo
Edinburgh
Eindhoven
Beauvais
Birmingham
Istanbul (IST).
CDG, FRA, AMS, BER and LHR are not much better.
It's been more than 10 years since I was in Milan, but back then, it was a good airport.

There is no way a "worst European airports" list is legit with no mention of CDG.

Bucharest is fine. Sure, it's a little difficult to figure out how to navigate check-in, but they're among the most efficient security screening I've experienced.

I also do not enjoy transfers through Frankfurt.
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Old Dec 20th, 2022, 07:02 AM
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Georgia is part of Europe for me, in the Eurovision, council for europe and wiki

Turkey, part in europe, part in asia, Anatalya is in Asia
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Old Dec 20th, 2022, 08:31 AM
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Belgrade made this list?! I mean, there was not much to it but it was certainly not horribly busy by any means. Definitely much easier and less stressful than CDG, LHR, and FRA.
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Old Dec 20th, 2022, 09:48 AM
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Originally Posted by Travel_Nerd
Belgrade made this list?! I mean, there was not much to it but it was certainly not horribly busy by any means. Definitely much easier and less stressful than CDG, LHR, and FRA.
Departing from or arriving to, not so bad. Transferring through, a total Kafkaesque nightmare, I won't do it anymore.. instead I just stay in Belgrade a couple of days
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Old Dec 20th, 2022, 10:06 AM
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Originally Posted by rialtogrl
Departing from or arriving to, not so bad. Transferring through, a total Kafkaesque nightmare, I won't do it anymore.. instead I just stay in Belgrade a couple of days
Thanks for that perspective, rialtogirl. A couple of days in Beograd is not a bad idea, either!
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Old Dec 20th, 2022, 10:49 AM
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Nostalgia here. My favorite was Antwerp when VLM was still flying there, using prop planes from Southampton, stopping there to Hamburg. They flew really low and went really slow. There were two gates: international, and domestic. I have no idea where any domestic flights went from Antwerp, but this was a seriously small, small airport, with nothing happening. But they had a car rental facility. Miss it terribly.
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Old Dec 20th, 2022, 02:35 PM
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True...Gatwick is the closest to me and I don't recall a single problem apart from when they had to close the South Terminal and it got a bit messy
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Old Dec 20th, 2022, 04:40 PM
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Never had any problems at some of those airports. Milan Malpensa? Frequently use it, never had a problem. Chania? No problems here either.
We were in Antalya, Turkey and it is very near Syria. Turkey is partly in Europe, west side, but mostly in Asia! Fodors should know better! Rather disappointing, actually shocking, that they would put that in print!
Not good.
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Old Dec 21st, 2022, 05:54 AM
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It's hard to imagine any airport being worse than FRA and especially AMS and BER these days. AMS is all-around terrible now: unpredictable and often incredibly long queues, delayed flights, nothing is open in the terminals even moderately late in the evening (good luck buying food after 9 PM airside), lost luggage, and of course ultra-long walks to get from one part of it to another. BER is not that bad normally, but I had the worst security queue experience in my life 2 weeks ago: a lawless chaos of people cutting the line in multiple points, followed by airport officials intervening when it was too late and stopping the people left behind to cut back in front, adding insult to injury. Oh, and to get almost anywhere from BER you have to go through FRA or MUC, both of which have their own problems.

I've had good experiences with many airports on this list, so I'm surprised to see them here, although to be fair they were all before this year, when things were quite different and AMS was awesome (except for the long walks, those were already a thing). Still, I can't imagine EIN being worse than AMS these days.

Anyway, they should hire the people managing FCO to consult on how to run a European airport properly post-COVID. Seriously, I'm amazed at how smoothly FCO works, consistently, when seemingly any other airport in Europe has problems.
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Old Dec 21st, 2022, 06:24 AM
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We are pretty happy with ZRH, including the train links to the airport. Basel is decent but has its moments of chaos.

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